Farce Cloud 2
by Itanu
Summary: A novelization of Dark Cloud 2, with a sort of satirical twist to it. Rated for language and suggestive themes.
1. Persistent Beast

Well, here is my first multi-chapter fic dealing with comedy. It may be amateur now, but hopefully, my sense of humor will become more and more universally appealling as I continue to write and (hopefully) get good reviews. Constructive criticism is the only way I can learn what can make you happy, and myself a better writer.

I do not own any of the settings, characters, or objects in Dark Cloud 2. They are copyright of Level 5 and Sony.

* * *

Monica rushed through the halls to her father's chamber, and noticed the door was open.

"What, those monsters are in my father's room? I've got to make sure Daddy's alright!" Monica panted unnecessarily.

_Roar!_

"Oh, yeah… and I gotta ditch these suckers, too," she added in a bored, unconcerned tone of voice.

Before Monica could reach the door, though, some more monsters jumped in through a window and landed in front of the redhead.

Monica backflipped into a position in which she was leaning up against the wall. She slid along it, noticed an ornamental sword being held by an armor suit, and grabbed it.

"Stand back!" Monica demanded as she held the sword in a fighting stance.

Surprisingly, that's just what the monsters did. They seemed, however, to be inspecting something in Monica's direction, which earned Monica's curiosity.

"What is it?" Monica asked, tilting her head a bit.

"…"

"What is it?" Monica repeated, this time sounding a little aggravated.

"…"

"Screw this," Monica scoffed lightly, and continued to run toward her dad's room- only for her to be blocked by the monsters.

"None shall pass," the biggest of the four monsters warned.

"Who do you think you are-"

"By the orders of Griffon, none shall pass into the chamber of King Reybrandt.

"I'm getting to my father, whether you like it or-"

"Then… you shall die."

"Get out of my way _now_! I order you as the princess!" Monica demanded, this time bringing the sword up to the shoulder level of the speaking monster.

"We move… for no girl," the monster said calmly, unperturbed by Monica's temper.

"So be it!" Monica challenged angrily, and pulled the sword back to cut off the monster's head.

As soon as these words were spoken, though, the other three monsters lunged at Monica. She immediately sliced off the head of the first one, and skewered the second one through the heart. The third one tried clawing at Monica, but she moved her head out of the way and countered with the sword, killing it.

"All right… now try me," the fourth monster challenged. He lashed at Monica with his claw-swords, and she as such was just barely quick enough to be missed by both of them. She then thrust the sword forward, which the monster caught with his right claw. Immediately after this happened, though, Monica twirled around counter-clockwise so fast that before the Griffon Soldier knew it…

_Shlink!_

… his left arm was on the ground, a small pool of black blood slightly dribbling onto it from the empty socket of the monster's shoulder.

"Now," Monica said in a satisfied tone, oblivious the fact that the Griffon Soldier hadn't even flinched, "Get out of my way."

"That's it? You're giving up already?!" The Griffon Soldier complained, readying its right sword-claw.

"Giving up? I cut your arm off, you idiot!" Monica shouted.

"No you didn't," the Monster responded matter-of-factly.

"What's that then?!" Monica exclaimed, pointing at the arm on the ground.

The monster looked at the cut-off arm briefly.

"…"

"…Well?"

"It's nothing but a scratch. C'mon, you pansy!"

The Griffon Soldier took Monica by surprise by lunging at her with its remaining arm, just barely giving her time to block it. The Soldier recoiled, but quickly afterward regained his balance and ran at Monica with the intent of skewering her. She simply sidestepped and cut off the right arm of the Soldier.

Monica headed into the direction of her father's room, muttering something about 'tenacious jackasses'. Just as she had taken her third step, though, she felt a small pain in her backside. She turned around, and to her horror and annoyance, the Soldier was now trying to kick her.

"My God, would you just stop it? You're beaten already!" She yelled.

"Ooh… had enough, eh?"

What little bit of Monica's self-control over her temper she had was quickly dissipating.

"Look, you stupid bastard, you've got no arms left!"

"Yes I have."

"Look!"

"…Just a flesh wound."

The persistent beast kicked Monica again.

"Stop it, now!" Monica demanded. Her temper was a mere sliver away from being totally lost.

"Chicken. Chicken!" The beast taunted as he continued to give Monica annoying but not-so-painful kicks, totally ignoring her warning.

"That's it!" Monica screamed, and with that, chopped up the monster's remaining limbs, starting at the feet and stopping at the pelvis.

Monica panted heavily after she was done for a while.

"All right," Monica panted as she ran toward her father's chamber, "We'll call it a draw."

"Oh, I see. Running away, eh?" the Griffon Soldier shouted at the girl, "You yellow bitch, come back 'ere and see what's coming to ya! _I'LL BITE YOUR LEGS OFF_!!!"

* * *

Monica dropped the sword at the sight of what was in the room: Her father, held by the throat by a white-haired man. The culprit, upon sensing her, got up and started walking with an intoxicated gait into a portal in front of him. The white-haired man turned around and looked at Monica with wide, glazed eyes.

"Gaspard? What've you done to my father?!" Monica yelled at the man.

"-hiccup-" was the man's response, before he passed out and fell into the portal, which disappeared when he collapsed into it.

* * *

Thank you very much for your time. Now please, tell me what you think of it.

The joke about limb-loss is in fact owned by Monty Python. This chapter is intended to set the mood of slight comedy before I actually start casting jokes out there.


	2. Meet Maximilian

Well, here is chapter two of my Dark Cloud 2 satire. This time, the jokes are for real.

I do not own Dark Cloud 2 or any of the characters within it. I'm naught but a humble author trying to express his inner spirit.

Now, here we go!

* * *

_Dear Mother,_

_How are you? I'm doing fine. So much has happened that I don't know where to start. Let me think… I know! I'll start at the middle, backtrack to the first thing that happened, and then skip to just after the middle and go on to the ending!_

…_Hmm…_

… _Nah, I think I'll just start at the beginning._

_It all began that night. That's right, the night of the storm. Don't gimme that! You know which storm I'm talking about, you big, fat… huh… oh, yeah- wait, since when?… oh, alright…_

_I have just been reminded that you were not in town that night, so you probably don't know what I'm talking about._

_Anyway, it all began the night of __a__ storm. _

_Max ran through the- hey, wait, why is this still in italics? You only need them to portray thoughts, sound effects, emphasis, and bits of Max's letter. The first part of Max's letter is over, so you can switch back to normal text now… seriously, switch out of italics,_ you lummox. I said, **get rid of the motherfu**- oh, wait, they're gone. Thank you!

Anyway, where were we? Ah, yes. Ahem…

Max ran through the main walkway of Palm Brinks. Even with the slight distraction of the huge downpour coming down onto him, he could see Cedric's shop not even ten meters off, so it was pretty obvious he could make it to the place in time to not get as pruned as a fetus.

Max got under the outstretching roof of the shop, and immediately bolted for the door. As soon as he got inside, he did quick look over himself. He was drenched all over.

"Aw, man," he whined as he started wiping water off of his clothes and out of his blonde hair, "I'm soaked!"

He kept trying and failing miserably to wipe water off of him in large quantities at a time for a few seconds._ Well,_ Max thought, _at least some of the water bounced off of me while I was running. Everyone else wasn't reflecting any water._

"Wait… I can just wring it out!" Max said triumphantly. He then started at his shirt collar and worked his way down. As soon as Max was about to pull down his pants so as to wring out his underwear, though…

"Ah, Max. Pretty early today, eh?" the familiar voice of Cedric, his grey-haired engineering tutor.

"Eeek!!!" Max screamed like a sissy in shock. Cedric raised one of his huge eyebrows.

"Err… Max… are you… oka-"

"Hey, Cedric! Yup, I sure am early today!" Max answered once he got his senses back. He figured since his briefs weren't even wet, there was absolutely no need to wring them out anyway.

Cedric rolled his eyes when his question about Max's status was answered indirectly.

"So… is there any reason in particular why you're so early?" Cedric asked in a friendly but slightly annoyed tone.

"Uh-huh, there sure is," Max answered as he dug through his tool pack, looking for something. Cedric waited patiently.

"Ah, here it is. Tada!" Max held out the piece of paper out triumphantly for Cedric to see, not even looking at it himself.

Cedric's mouth immediately started watering as soon as he saw the slip.

"Whoa… damn, look at those bazungas!" He exclaimed as he leaned onto the desk he was sitting behind to get a better look.

"What?" Max asked as he opened his eyes to look at the piece of paper himself.

"Oh, yeah, my Play-Brinks magazine. I've been looking for this," Max murmured as the realization dawned upon him. He folded the female-nudity merchandise and put it into his tool compartment, and then pulled out a different piece of paper.

"Here we go… Tada!" Max repeated as he pulled out the real piece of paper he wanted to show Cedric.

"Whoa, a silv-"

"A silver dollar, I know! Isn't it awesome? I get go to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory now, thanks to this baby!"

"…Uh, Max…"

"Yeah?"

"…That's a ticket to the circus."

"Wha- really?" Max asked in a confuzzled tone as he flipped the thing in his hands over.

"Whoa, it really _is_ a ticket to the circus! I must've forgotten that after I got it, I was so discombobulated with excitement."

"Max," Cedric asked in an annoyed and somewhat grumpy tone, "What evidence for this being a ticket to Willy Who-ya-ma-call-it's Chocolate… thing could possibly be more convincing than a picture of a clown on the cover?"

"I found it in a bar of chocolate."

A pause.

"…Right. And who, might I ask, gave you that chocolate bar?" The old mechanic asked.

"Adel."

_Figures as much,_ Cedric thought, _that girl would sell her soul for five minutes alone with Max in a locked bedroom. Or would, if she even had the guts._

"Anyway, Max, that vacuum cleaner of Gable's is downstairs, so I'd recommend working on it now."

"Hm? Oh, right," Max muttered upon this reminder. Just as he had taken his first two steps downstairs, though, Cedric stopped him.

"By the way, Max," the old man asked, "what's with the necklace?"

"Huh?" Max looked puzzled. Then, it occurred to him what the old man was talking about: the huge ruby hanging from his neck.

"Oh, yeah," Max said when he realized this, "Dad gave it to me yesterday."

"Hm. Alright, then, get to work," Cedric replied in a mild-mannerly way. He sat down and continued to read his book, trying to summon the willpower to try to summon the willpower to try to get that picture of the pornographic magazine Max had pulled out earlier out of his head.

* * *

Max sat down at the workbench. Wrench? Check. Screwdriver? Check. Tertiary pack of energy drinks? Check.

With that, Max started to repair the vacuum cleaner. Slowly but surely, he had fallen asleep by the time he was done, seemingly forgetting about the energy drinks.

* * *

Well, how is this chapter? Tell me what you think, please. Indeed, unlike the last chapter, whose only joke was a rip-off of a Monty Python bit and whose only purpose was to set the mood of comedy, this chapter is indeed intended to make at least subtle jokes.


	3. Don of a New Era

Well, here is Chapter Three of the Video Game-parodying fanfiction of the century!

...No, it isn't the best one of the century. But it is a parody.

I don't own Dark Cloud 2 or any of the associated settings or characters in it. I simply own this story.

* * *

The two moons shined brightly in the night sky, illuminating the town of Palm Brinks below them. Of course, there was a much bigger attraction in town than the two moons at the moment.

A very large man in clown makeup and a blue-buttoned tuxedo-like garment and wearing white pants looked out upon the city street at the huge crowd in the distance flocking toward the circus.

"Well," this man asked four much leaner clowns behind him enthusiastically without turning around, "is everybody ready for tonight's show?"

"How does he do that without facing us?" One clown whispered to another.

"Ah, who cares," the clown's compatriot responded, "he pays the bills."

Just after this small gossip had happened, the fat clown, one Flotsam by name, continued without turning around in an even more creepily enthusiastic tone, "Let's give our well-paying customers a night… of Ecstasy… and Wonder!"

The smaller clowns looked in confusion at each other.

"Err… boss?" a meek clown with a Southern accent asked shyly.

"Yeah, what is it?" Flotsam asked angrily as he turned around to finally face the smaller clowns.

"Well, not that I wouldn't enjoy that or nothin'," the Southern clown continued, "But I don't t'ink it'd look good on my resume to see suttin' like that. Besides, I've already got a wi-"

"I'm not talking about sex, you idiot! I'm talking about the show! This is a circus, not a brothel!" Flotsam yelled at him angrily after realizing what the clown had thought he meant.

"Oh… I see!" the four clowns answered happily in unison and started murmuring indistinctly among themselves.

Flotsam rolled his eyes.

"And they came so highly recommended," the fat clown muttered in annoyance as he walked toward the tent.

* * *

Max opened his eyes slowly. His foggy vision slowly adjusted to the world around him.

He knew there was some reason he had to get up, though he couldn't quite remember what it was, so his mind automatically started making observations of the world around him to find excuses to wake up.

A vacuum cleaner… right, the one he had toiled away on. It was fixed now, though, and he figured he could just get it back to Gable later. His eyes started to close again.

Quickly, his mind tried once again to find something to wake him up- aha! A light… light always wakes people up.

Hence, his mind made his eyes look at the lamp.

'_Oh, bugger,'_ thought his subconscious, _'a bright light. Maybe if I close my eyes, it won't hurt anymore'._

His eyes started to close even more.

_Crap,_ his semi-conscious thought, _how do I wake this guy up? Aha! There's a clock right there, and his royal consciousness is always-_

Immediately, Max shot up before his semi-conscious could even force his eyes to focus on the clock.

"Oh, gee… my head… where… when…" Max asked as he began to wake back up to the world. He then remembered something about a silver tick-

"Holy Momma, the circus!" Max exclaimed as he grabbed the clock and realized what the time was and where he had to be. He immediately pushed himself out of his chair and headed up the stairs.

"Oh, why the heck didn't it go off?!" Max complained as he bolted for the door. "I mean, what half-wit idiot makes a clock that doesn't even ring?!"

* * *

_Flashback:_

"_Hey, wook at dis, Cedwic! I made my firsht cwock aw by myshelf!" Max said proudly in a high-pitched voice as he presented his first complex machine to his tutor._

"_Ah, very good, Max!" Cedric praised. "So, did you put a ringing system in there?" The elder mechanic asked._

"_Nah, I'm not ever gonna need one," Max responded giddily.

* * *

_

_Back to the Present_

"Oh, yeah, that's right," Max realized. "Ah, well, this is no time to pin blame!"

As he reached the door, though, he noticed that Cedric wasn't where he usually was- in fact, he wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"Hm. Guess he's off in the restroom," Max lazily concluded as he now ran through the street, not wanting at the moment to stop to think about where the old man was.

* * *

Max reached eyeshot of the tent within minutes, he was running so fast.

There it was. The beautiful, huge circus tent…

_The tent seemed to get even bigger as he neared it…_

The bright lights within the tent illuminated the area around it like an angel's halo…

_It kept getting brighter and brighter. Max knew at that moment he had died and was going to heaven…_

He knew it was only a matter of seconds before he finally saw the-

"Eeek!" Max squealed as all that accumulated rainwater finally took its toll and he slipped and tumbled for about two meters.

"Ooh," Max held his head in his hand. As Max started to push himself up, though, he noticed a little sting on the pad of his right index finger. The boy brought his hand up to where he could see it, and sure enough, there was a little scratch on his fingertip.

Max reached into his tool pouch with his left hand, pulled out a Hello Kitty band-aid, peeled off the white plastic underside, and put on his cut, cooing comforting words to his "wound".

"Ahem…" A somewhat gruff voice interrupted the creepy scene. Max looked up, and sure enough, he was at the feet of a clown, looking down on the boy with what was probably a lifted eyebrow behind his mask.

"Oh, right," Max muttered, pushing himself off of the ground a second after seeing the clown's mask.

"So…" the clown asked, holding out his hand, "I take it you've got a ticket?"

"Err… a ticket?" Max repeated nervously, not sure what to say when talking to clowns.

"Yes, you need a ticket to go in," the clown clarified in a matter-of-factly tone of his gruff voice.

"Oh, yeah!" Max exclaimed as he remembered what the clown was talking about. He reached into his tool satchel, pulled out the silver ticket, and-

_Thwat!_

The ticket was snatched out of Max's hand before the clown could grasp it. Max saw the culprit in a blur, making out nothing more than spiky, red hair on the kid's head.

"H-hey, that's my ticket!" Max yelled at the boy, hoping he would stop. He didn't.

When Max saw that the boy wasn't stopping for him, he took pursuit of the little red-headed boy. He ran for about eight meters before finally stopping.

"I can't believe this! Of all the no-good… whew…" The blonde-haired boy raged on. "Wait just a minute," Max interrupted himself as he got a new idea, "there's only one entrance to the circus open now… and no average hobo boy can resist a chance to see the circus… so why don't I just wait at the entrance and catch him when he comes around? I'm a genius!" Max announced triumphantly.

"Maximilian…" an ominously deep, echoing voice announced out of nowhere.

"Huh? Who said that? Hello?" Max slightly panicked, looking for the source of the sound.

"Maximilian," the ominous voice repeated, "This is God speaking…"

"Oh! O, my liege…" Max started to bend down onto one knee, earning a few perplexed looks from passers-by who couldn't hear the voice themselves.

* * *

Donny, a boy with shaggy black hair that covered his eyes and a long, crooked, yellow hat on his head, took the microphone away from his mouth and looked over the edge of the roof he and his friends were perched on at the dirty-blonde-haired boy below kneeling down.

"I told 'im I'm God," Donny explained to his friends, causing everyone- including him- to snicker mischievously. Donny lifted the microphone back up to his chin.

* * *

"Get back up on your feet," the voice of 'God' demanded. Max immediately did as he was told.

"Now, twirl around in circles and I shall tell you what I wish you to know," the echoing voice requested calmly.

Max raised one of his eyebrows.

"Err… what'd you say-"

"You dare to defy your God?!" the voice boomed in Max's ear, giving him a small headache.

"N-not at all, Milord!" Max stammered, and he immediately started to spin around.

"Now, Maximilian, you must not take the easy route to finding the thief, as you…"

"…As I what, Milord?" Max asked as he tried desperately to keep his balance while continuing to spin around.

"I've changed my mind," the voice announced, "now I want you to spin even faster… _and_ I want you to jump up and down, too."

"Yes, Sir…" Max confirmed reluctantly, doing as he was told, which caused him to be the center of attention for everyone around.

"Ah, good. Anyway, like I was saying," 'God' continued, "don't take the easy route to finding the thief as you were going to do. Instead, follow in his footsteps and find out from the people around you what his whereabouts are. That is the task I have given you. You may stop now."

"Yes, Sir," Max responded weakly, and as soon as he stopped, he stumbled, spun a bit, and fell on his back.

* * *

Donny pulled the microphone away from his face again and looked behind him.

"I jus' sent 'im on a wild goose chase," Donny snickered, causing everyone else on the roof to break out with laughter.

* * *

Well, there's chapter three for you. Please tell me what you think!


	4. The Chase

**A/N:** Hey there, Itanu here. Here it is- the fourth Chapter of Farce Cloud 2. Took me long enough, I know, but better late than never, right? Of course, Better never late...

Anyway, I do not own Dark Cloud 2, or any of its characters or settings. The game and all contents within and thereof belong to the geniuses at Level 5 Entertainment. I just own this story. Here we go!

* * *

"Hey, did you see a little redheaded boy go by?" Max asked to a couple making out.

"Ungh… No, I don't think… oh… so…" Giles responded as he eventually broke away from the kiss he was in. "Did you see anything, honey?" He asked his girlfriend.

"Yes, he headed for City Hall," she responded politely.

"Thanks," Max said. The moment he took a step toward the direction of Palm Brinks City Hall, though, was also when the disorientation he'd experienced from God's commands a few moments earlier caught up with him. To sum it up, he tripped over his own legs, and landed square on the temple of his head, going out like a lightbulb upon impact.

"Oh my goodness," his girlfriend said, getting up to go help Max, "are you okay?"

"Hey, you alright, kid?" Giles said with a grimace.

"Did you just copy what I said…again?" the girlfriend said, anger in her voice.

"Can we talk about this later? This kid's out. We gotta make sure he's-!"

"Yeah, postpone it- that's what you always do!"

Max woke up to the ensuing argument between the two lovebirds. He managed to stand up and regain his balance just in time to see them both scream, "I've had it!" at the same time- and subsequently tackle each other in amorous ecstasy. Max walked quick as he could away from the scene with a shudder.

_Well,_ the blonde boy thought, _it seems they couldn't care much less about what way that boy went, but since it's my only lead… to City Hall it is!_

Max immediately sprinted for the City Hall, tripped, and pushed himself off of the ground and started sprinting again. As soon as he was in front of the building, he looked around in all directions. No sign of the redhead anywhere.

Max heard some indistinct mumbling behind him, triggering him to turn around. It was, indeed, an elderly old woman he had seen around from time to time.

"Hey, have you seen a little red-headed boy run by here?" Max asked as calmly as he could.

"Hmm? Oh, yes," the old woman responded, and pointing to her right, continued, "I could swear I saw him head that way."

"Thanks," Max said as he ran off in that direction.

* * *

"Excuse me, but have you seen a little redheaded boy pass by here recently?" Max asked a small girl.

"Me? No, sorry," the girl responded in a sickeningly adorable young voice.

"Hmm," Max sighed sadly, "I see." Max miserably started to trudge his way back to Cedric's workshop. Now nothing could make him happy. This circus wasn't going to come around again for quite a while, and thanks to his stupidity, Max had lost his chance to go to the circus to a little-

"Whoa," Max muttered. He looked around him analyzing every aspect of his surroundings. Suddenly, he saw a blur of red out of the corner of his eye.

"Uh-huh…" Max said, his hand on his chin, "My Spidey-senses are tingling."

Max noticed where his 'Spidey Senses' were pointing him- a closed popcorn cart. Sure enough, there was a suspicious, bright-red spike bulging out from behind it. He approached it slowly. The spike started to move. Max creeped into the direction that the red tuft was going. Likewise, the hair stopped and started to go the other way. Max went that way.

This little game of Musical Popcorn went on for what felt like forever. Suddenly, the little boy popped out from behind the cart, and bolted for the Circus Tent.

"Hey, you!" Max yelled, pointing at the little boy. Max once more bolted for the boy . This time, though he was faster than the little red-head.

_"The two of them head for the goal- Oh, look, Max is gaining on the hobo kid… Oh, he's got 'im, he's got 'im…"_

Max was within arms' reach of the boy. He now summoned every bit of willpower in his body, and shot like a rocket onto the kid.

_"BOOM!!! Touchdown! Look at those two tumble!"_

"Gotcha!" Max announced triumphantly as he sat on his knees atop the redheaded child's limp body.

_"Have you ever seen a tackle like that, Bob?"_

_"Not in the history of this stadium, Chuck. There's no way-!"_

Max shot a glare of warning at the two clowns narrating via microphone a few meters off.

After a moment of silence and motionlessness...

"Burgers!" the clowns exclaimed, throwing their microphones up in the air, and raced away.

Ignoring his urge to figure out what had just happened, Max turn his attention back to the thief.

"Alright," Max demanded as he mercifully let the little boy get up, "hand over the ticket."

"I-I'm sorry," the little boy whined, "I just wanted to see the Circus. Just once."

The boy walked away, whimpering. This obviously tugged Max's heartstrings.

"You… you really want to see the circus, don't you?"

"Yeah," the little boy sniffled.

"Well," Max hesitantly said, "you shouldn't really be stealing other people's stuff, you know..."

"You're right!" The little boy wailed, "You're right... I'm a monster!" His weeping went up a notch as he pulled a Bible out of his pocket and started to whisper prayers through his sobs.

He looked down at the ticket in his hand, which no longer filled him with the sense of joy he'd gotten before.

Max looked back up to see the boy crossing his heart several times over, after which he picked up a pebble on the ground and began to carve the letters R-I-P into a brick embedded in the walkway. It was then that Max noticed the dirty looks nearby pedestrians were shooting him. At this point, Max himself was starting to get significantly teary-eyed.

The red-headed boy retrieved a rosebud from a nearby flowerbed, held it over his chest, plopped onto the pavement so he was looking up at the sky, his head on the makeshift grave, and started to make a very elaborate death groan.

Max could not take this anymore- at this point, his conscience was alternating between stabbing him in the legs and pouring 100% alchohol into the wounds.

"Hey, Kid?" Max hesitantly spoke as he walked over to the little boy. No response.

"Listen," Max spoke, stumbling a bit for words before he continued, "I really don't need the ticket." The blonde teenager knelt down and, gingerly holding the ticket out in front of him, said, "You can have it."

"Really?" the younger boy croaked.

"Sure, I'll just see it next time it comes around," Max said like a good sport.

The kid snatched the ticket quickly as he could and got up to a standing position in one smooth motion.

"Thank you, Mister! I'll never steal again, I promise!"

"You'd better hurry," Max said, "it's about to start."

The little boy shot off like a rocket to the tent's entrance. Max shrugged with a smile. In just one kind act, he had amended for his act of creulty against a child, inspired a theif to vow a life with no more stealing, and shut up that ever-so-cruel shoulder angel of his.

_'Yup,'_ Max summarized in his head, _'In short, I helped someone less financially fortunate than myself.'_

Max thought about this for a moment.

_'...although, that's pretty much everyone I know,'_ he added.

When Max had exited his deep thought, it came to his attention that there were no stars in the sky. The two moons were also gone. Max now felt himself be a bit worried.

Max tilted his head down. This was when he noticed, there were no buildings in sight. Max now felt his heart stop.

When he noticed there was no floor, Max finally got it through his head that there was absolutely _nothing_ in sight. He started to hyperventilate.

"Max..." a scarily familiar voice said. Max saw what he feared: the little boy he'd given his ticket to, standing five meters off.

"What's going on?" Max demanded to know.

"You've passed the first test. You might be able to help us," the little boy continued.

"Alright, Kid," Max said firmly, "let's get this straight: I don't know what's with all this weird stuff that's been happening to me all day. And I'm as sure as Hell's hot that I don't know what this 'test' you're talking about is," Max continued, raising the tone of his voice, "but if you're the one behind all of it, I want you out of my head! I gave you the ticket- now get out of my brain, get out of my way, and _**get out of my life!"**_ Max concluded his monologue pointing his finger into the surrounding void. Suddenly, the little boy disappeared in a fairly-sized puff of smoke.

Max blinked as he processed this.

**"OH MY GOD, HE EXPLODED!!!"**

It was after he made this comment that Max noticed the world had come back- and, that the ticket this whole fuss had been over was now lying where the little boy had just been.

Now, this is the point in such a sequence of events as this when any intelligent, logical, forward-thinker with even a shred of common sense heads home- _away_ from the ticket- and calls for some serious therapy. As everyone in Palm Brinks knew, Max was one of the most intelligent teenagers in the entire town. Likewise, he was legendary for his Sherlock Holmes-like logic. And no one who knew him could find a viable way to deny his ability to analyze oncoming circumstances and plan accordingly.

* * *

"Here you go."

"Hurry, it's about to start!"

Max entered the tent. Common Sense was not on his side.

* * *

**A/N:** There it is. R&R, please- even if it's a flame.


End file.
